Safe and Sound
by Bring Cub Back
Summary: "No." He almost whimpered staring up at her with eyes that have seen too much, that knew too much, that shouldn't belong to him. "I must Alex, I will be right back I pro-" "Please Ziva," He interrupted desperately and lunged forward grabbing her ankle when she started walk away. "Please… Don't leave me here alone." One-Shot. Song-fic.


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_-Safe and Sound-_

Ziva ran grabbing the boys hand and practically dragging him behind her through the bomb shelter. It was a challenge dragging the fourteen year old that was covered in dust and blood calling out for his team, his unit.

"Fox! Wolf! Answer me damn it!" He screamed loudly not bothering to hold back the tears streaking his face like horrible scars that would never go away.

Ziva was about to stop him from screaming but decided not to, she ducked as another bomb went off over their heads and she heard Alex yell out again and break out of her grip and start sprinting towards the door that would take him outside to the catastrophe that was going on above them. Ziva ran and grabbed him around his midsection and dragged the struggling teen down with great effort.

"No!" He shouted in a broken voice, now trying to crawl to the door away from Ziva. "No! Eagle! Snake! Please god no!"

Another bomb shook the shelter with miraculous force, sending the pleading boy onto his stomach and Ziva on top of him. She quickly sat up and pulled him into her arms and lap rocking him back and forth slowly, his strangled cries escaping his lips, calling for people who would never respond.

"It is okay Alex," Ziva whispered in his ear. "It is all okay."

"No! Never! Gone!" He sobbed, tears mixing with soot. "All gone…"

"Shh…" Ziva muttered into his hair, holding back her own tears. "I'll never let you go. I promise. It'll be okay…"

The abused teen hushed his sobs into silent tears and got a far off look into his eyes, a dead look that shouldn't be found on such a young face, that shouldn't be found on any. No man, woman, or child should have to loose so much so fast. No man, woman, or child should have to face so many fears, should have to be haunted by what was the past and what will be the future and what is horribly the present that is no where near a gift or dream, but a nightmare. It is a nightmare that will rule the soul over a range of time and will never leave, even when the day is bright.

A silence soon fell onto the small bomb shelter as the large craters of death and destruction ended their reign of terror for a long moment. Ziva softly pulled to boy out of her grip and stood up, leaving him sitting there staring at an old rotten wall.

"I must go." She said in a soft and kind voice, trying not to cause him to loose himself like he had earlier. She did not think she could control him again.

"No." He almost whimpered staring up at her with eyes that have seen too much, that knew too much, that shouldn't belong to him.

"I must Alex, I will be right back I pro-"

"Please Ziva," He interrupted desperately and lunged forward grabbing her ankle when she started walk away. "Please… _Don't leave me here alone_."

Zivas breathe caught and a tear leaked from the corner of her eye travelled to her cheek and splashed down to the creaking ground. She kneeled down onto the ground and held Alex dirty face in her hands and stared into his eyes, his dead eyes begging for hope that was gone. Ziva gently moved a strand of hair out of his pained face and he lifted his hand and held hers tightly. "Please Ziv-"

He never finished his sentence as a bomb rattled the shelter violently sending him flying into her arms, fresh tears marking new scars. Ziva held him and hummed a soft tune into his hair as a new eerie silence fell into the shelter.

"Just close your eyes Alex," She muttered "You'll be alright. Nobody will hurt you anymore, no one. I promise you that. I promise that this will be the end of it, it will all end after this I promise you."

"You can not promise that…" He muttered through his tears, "This won't be the end… I tell myself that it will and it always comes back." Alex sobbed through the end of his sentence with a pain that could never be measured.

"You are a hero Alex, and you've done all that you have needed to… All that you can do. And in the morning… In the morning… this will all be over, it will all end… That, that I can promise you." Ziva said to him, trying to bring to him as much comfort as she could. But regardless of what she put out it would never be enough, and it would be a long time before it ever would be.

They fell asleep like that, holding onto each other for dear life and bombs shaking them through the night.

When Ziva woke up she felt cold, empty almost and she looked around and realized that Alex wasn't in her lap.

"Alex?" She called out looking around getting up quickly. "Alex!?"

Panic was quickly overcoming Ziva as she called out for the distraught teen, she prayed that he didn't do anything drastic like go out and search for his unit in the soils that was just outside their door.

"Alex!" Ziva yelled as she ran down the long hall that slowly inclined, then she paused as she saw a door that was slightly open, only showing a crack of light. Slowly she approached the door and pushed it open. There she saw him, pushing aside the rotten curtain and staring out of a stained half-window with a haunted expression silent tears splashing to the floor. Ziva slowly walked into the room, but not to him unsure of what to do but stare out the window with him. The world, it seemed, was on fire with ash craters and limbs spread amongst the burning bushes, shattered hunks of metal that are no longer identifiable. Plastic shattered across the ground and blood spread on the ground just as often as the fire did. Ziva looked away as tears poured down her face seeing the horrendous sight in front of her. Even if the bombings were over the war was still raging with the blood and ruins of who fought. A war of inner agony between fighting to move past this and burning along with the ashes of what has been. She walked to Alex and gently forced his fingers to let go of the current and let it fall back into its place, blocking the horrors outside of their shelter from them. Ziva took Alex's hand in hers and pulled him slowly away from the window, out of the room and back down the hallway to the room they were previously in. The whole way Alex was silent and his hand was limp as he was pulled by Ziva, there was no fight in him. There was nothing left that he felt like fighting for, nothing.

The NCIS agent sat down on the creaky bed and pulled him down next to her, he was like putty in her hands doing whatever she wanted him to do. She laid him down pulling his head into her lap and stroked his hair singing to him softly, humming an old song her mother would sing to her when she could never fall asleep when she was young, a song that she had sung to her brothers when they, in turn, couldn't fall asleep. With one hand Alex reached up and grabbed the one she wasn't using and held onto it and she pulled it up to her lips and kissed it, giving the teen a small reassuring smile. Regardless of what he's seen and what he's been through he is still nothing more than a young boy.

"Hold on to this lullaby," Ziva sang softly in Hebrew. "Even when the music's gone."

"_Gone…" _Alex muttered in English the sob that he held back racked his body and Ziva held his hand tighter and sung louder, but still gentle.

They sat like that for a long time until Alex sat up and stood,

"Alex?" Asked Ziva standing up with him still holding his hand.

"We need to go out now Ziva, the bombing is over. We need to get to help." His voice was shaking hard, holding back the sobs that were for his unit.

"Alex I do not think you are ready for-" Ziva started, seeing how the boy was trying hard not to shatter to the ground in a million pieces.

"I never will be." He said as he moved his eyes towards the door and walked towards it with Ziva behind him. He reached out to open the door but Ziva grabbed his hand and stopped him. Alex looked up at her confused and Ziva smiled softly at him,

"Together." She said. Alex nodded and gave her a small smile,

"_Together." _

And together the British school boy and the Mossad assassin open the door to the destruction outside; they climbed up hand in hand and looked around at the ashes a smoke filled breeze moving their hair across their faces as they stared at what could only be compared to one of the layers of Hell. It was exactly like the sight from the window but only surrounding them, the window was aloud to be fake, like a screen in a theatre. But this, standing to the smoke and ashes and the remains of a vehicle was surreal and not good surrealism either. The two survivors didn't say anything to each other, but they started walking through the mess and later Ziva felt Alex freeze and he stared at something far off, she followed his gaze and say a lone tree, slowly burning at the top. In that moment they both flashed back,

"_Ziva take Alex!" Fox screamed at them from behind the bark as bombs came down and enemy soldiers were marching forward. _

"_Ben no!" Alex screamed. _

"_We are not leaving you." Ziva had yelled. _

_Wolf reached over and grabbed Ziva lifting her up by her collar, "Listen to me little Mossad, you are going to get him out of here and now! Do not ask me any questions just get him to a shelter or I swear on my life I will personally shove you in front of one of these bombs now go!" He pushed her forward and she grabbed Alex's hand and started running. _

_Alex looked back and saw his unit watching him being dragged away by Ziva, "No!" He ripped his hand away from Zivas and ran back to the K-Unit and into their arms, hugging all of them and not wanting to let go. _

"_Go Alex…" Snake said. _

"_Everything will be okay Cubby!" Eagle said with a cheery smile, but his eyes showed pain. He didn't like this as much as Alex. _

"_You better scram kid," Wolf said, but with a soft smile. "Get outta here Double-Oh-Nothing." _

"_Alex please I'm begging you… We aren't fighting for you to die on us okay? Go with Ziva." Fox said kneeling down in front of Alex and he reached up and wiped away some blood from Alex's forehead. "Please…" _

_Alex had let out a hard sob and hugged Ben tightly and B hugged back just as hard, "I promise after this Alex, you and I… all of us… we'll be safe and sound." _

_Alex had just sobbed into Ben hiding his face in the dirty uniform until Ben had pulled himself away and Wolf pushed him to Ziva. The last thing that Alex saw was Fox, still kneeling on the ground, Wolf with his hand on Fox's shoulder, Snake smiling softly at Alex and Eagle waving. _

"People shouldn't make promises they can't keep…" Alex muttered staring at the tree, then he started running towards it. Ziva followed on his heels and they both stood in front of the tree that now meant so much to the two agents. Ziva looked down and saw something shine and reflect the light into her eyes, she bent down and picked up the bent and dirty piece of metal that was attached to a broken chain and another piece clanged against it. Ziva only had to read the first one to know who these belonged to, she handed the dog-tags to Alex who took them with care and stared down at them, his tears splashing into his filthy, scratched palms. Alex slowly took one of the tags off the chains and held it tightly in his hand before putting it into his pocket; he then clasped the chain together again and hung it in the area where the bark of the tree split into two. Wolf's tag sat in the bark, bright in the hot sun and against the dark, charred wood of the tree.

Ziva then pulled the young spy close to her and wrapped her arm around him as they both stared at the tree that now had a part of the K-Unit with it. Alex closed his eyes and pulled out the one tag that he removed and wiped away some dirt with his thumb.

"Will you be okay Alex?" Ziva asked softly after a while,

Alex nodded then looked up and smiled softly at Ziva, "As long as we're _safe and sound."_

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**This obviously means I'm (Anna obviously not Helen) am writing ALEX/NCIS! Yay! Also writing a part two to this for those who like happy endings. ;) **

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**-Anna- **

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